Not confirmed but Stephen Howson who broke this Faria story has now also said that McKenna will be our next assistant manager.

If that's true, then it's an incredible show of faith on a 32yr old coach. He's very attack minded and our U18 has played the best football in this league. Also it'll help in the transition of youngsters to senior team.

Not confirmed but Stephen Howson who broke this Faria story has now also said that McKenna will be our next assistant manager.

If that's true, then it's an incredible show of faith on a 32yr old coach. He's very attack minded and our U18 has played the best football in this league. Also it'll help in the transition of youngsters to senior team.

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Hope this is true, he is highly rated and done a fantastic job thus far.

Not confirmed but Stephen Howson who broke this Faria story has now also said that McKenna will be our next assistant manager.

If that's true, then it's an incredible show of faith on a 32yr old coach. He's very attack minded and our U18 has played the best football in this league. Also it'll help in the transition of youngsters to senior team.

All credit to Stephen Howson and thanks for sharing information. I think It would make a lot of sense that we need new ideas for our style of plays. Kieran Mckenna is very attacked minds and playing so entertaining football and has managed U18 sides that won the north league whilst playing nice football and scored more goals than any team in the north league. I reckon he may play a key role in bringing young players from the academy to the first team

He did a decent interview for the website a while back, talked about developing our kid "the United way" so may be interesting for some of you to read: Link

Perhaps, some of U18 sides players like Gomes and Chong would join us in pre-season friendlies with Mckenna as an assistant?

It's been said a few times in the other thread but it's an exciting appointment. He's got the U18s playing some great football and has a good knowledge of our youth system. We've got some really promising players coming through, probably our best bunch in years, hopefully he'll be able to encourage Mourinho to take a chance on some of them. Could prove to be a really good way to bring some of the better ones into the first team picture.

He's a United fan too and only 32 years old, it's a big show of faith. But if we get our seniors attacking like the U18s have this past season then we could be in for a treat. Be interesting to see who we might get to replace him as U18 manager.

Very very exciting IMO, he's very highly rated and will become a manager in the future. Maybe the idea is to groom him to take over here eventually.
Either way, this is very interesting but I do hope we find an adequate replacement for our U18's.

Very very exciting IMO, he's very highly rated and will become a manager in the future. Maybe the idea is to groom him to take over here eventually.
Either way, this is very interesting but I do hope we find an adequate replacement for our U18's.

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I’ve enjoyed watching the under 18’s more this season than the senior team. He seems to understand the United way of playing football far better than Mourinho and I just hope a bit of that rubs off on Jose.

Our potential next SAF, considering that he is boyhood United fans, he won't leave United for other clubs if he gets get chance to manage our senior and win games and win trophies whilst playing nice football.

Would be exciting. Something to potentially look forward to in the hope of a change in play style. Won't be dramatic of course, but enough of a change could be made to be a bit more adventurous, take more risks and maybe create a nice balance unlike what we have right now. Mourinho and Faria have been together for a very long time, there is a chance that having the same people around you could create too much of the same and a lack of fresh ideas. Who knows what the future holds for McKenna though. Plenty of top managers started out as youth team managers and had a big impact there, before being given the job themselves. Real big reach here, but if McKenna has a significant impact as an assistant, could be that in a few years, once Mourinho leaves, he's given the job. Would be a much more gradual change rather than massive changes every time. That's way in the future though. Let's see his impact as an assistant next season first.

He’s a very talented coach and has worked wonders at U18 level. It would be a sign of great faith for him to land a role in the senior team. If that is what he wants then he needs to go for it.

Conversely, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about him moving out of the U18 set up at this point. He was an excellent find and has helped revolutionise our youth team. It would be very difficult to get a replacement.

Still, much like our belief in young players, if we think he’s good enough then he’s got to be given the chance.

He's got previous for doing this, he charged foreign fans to go to the pub with him (Not sure if he still does it though) He's a right argumentative sod as well, one of those people that if you said the sky was blue he'd be adamant that it's red.

I guess Fegie was kind of influenced by Queiroz (as it's widely believed)...Having a hard time imagining Mourinho will alter his vision on tactics and style because of an assistant though. We'll see.

There's also a very good chance this McKenna chap could find himself a Manchester United manager (interim) very soon, if Mourinho implodes next season.

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There was an article shared on RedCafe, possibly in the build up to the Tottenham game, where Mourinho said he'd been trying a different approach in attack and they'd been focusing on it in training which didn't end up working properly (might have been from a presser). I think Mourinho is willing to learn and change up his style although that might be an unpopular theory at the moment, he's mentioned it a few times this season that he's been trying new things and I don't think we'd be appointing someone attack minded unless Mourinho was willing to take their advice.

I would be a bit concerned about the U18s if McKenna is promoted to first team duties. After some lean years our academy is starting to look the business again. I just hope the kids are alright in the end.

For the regular watchers of U18 football, what's his playing philosophy?

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Puts a lot of emphasis on quick transitions, retaining possession and link up play, the U18s are capable of counter attacking or boxing in the opposing teams well and are very good at working the ball into the box.

Not confirmed but Stephen Howson who broke this Faria story has now also said that McKenna will be our next assistant manager.

If that's true, then it's an incredible show of faith on a 32yr old coach. He's very attack minded and our U18 has played the best football in this league. Also it'll help in the transition of youngsters to senior team.

Puts a lot of emphasis on quick transitions, retaining possession and link up play, the U18s are capable of counter attacking or boxing in the opposing teams well and are very good at working the ball into the box.

Puts a lot of emphasis on quick transitions, retaining possession and link up play, the U18s are capable of counter attacking or boxing in the opposing teams well and are very good at working the ball into the box.

I’ve enjoyed watching the under 18’s more this season than the senior team. He seems to understand the United way of playing football far better than Mourinho and I just hope a bit of that rubs off on Jose.

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Tbh the under 18's is full of flair players so that helps.
This is all speculation of course and we don't know what will happen but again, it's a very interesting development if true.